Books

APS Member Access to Monograph Series Books

The APS has collaborated with Springer to digitize 34 book titles previously published in the APS monograph series. Additionally, the APS and Springer will be publishing new titles. Both the previously published and new titles in the monograph series are freely available to APS Members.

APS members should click the hyperlink labeled "Free to Members" next to each title. If you are not a member, click "Purchase eBook" to purchase access, or join APS to start enjoying the many benefits that our 11,000 members currently enjoy.

This second edition offers an expanded and updated history of the field of fetal and neonatal development, allowing readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the biological aspects that contribute to the wellbeing or pathophysiology of newborns.

In this concluding opus of a long and prominent career as a clinical scientist, Dr. Longo has invited new contributions from noted colleagues with expertise in various fields to provide a historical perspective on the impact of how modern concepts emerged in the field of fetal physiology and contributed to the current attention paid to the fetal origins of diseases in adults. In addition to new chapters on maternal physiology and complications during pregnancy, others trace the history of the Society for Reproductive Investigation, governmental funding of perinatal research, and major initiatives to support training in the new discipline of maternal fetal medicine, including the Reproductive Scientist Development program.

The extensive survey provided by the author, who personally knew most of the pioneers in the field, offers a unique guide for all clinical and basic scientists interested in the history of – and future approaches to diagnosing and treating – pathologies that represent the leading causes of neonatal mortality and, far too often, life-long morbidity.

Only recently have we begun to appreciate the role of microbiome in health and disease. Environmental factors and change of life style including diet significantly shape human microbiome that in turn appears to modify gut barrier function affecting nutrient & electrolyte absorption and inflammation. Approaches that can reverse the gut dysbiosis represent as reasonable and novel strategies for restoring the balance between host and microbes.

In the book, we offer summary and discussion on the advances in understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of microbial host interactions in human diseases. We will not only discuss intestinal bacterial community, but also viruses, fungi and oral microbiome. Microbiome studies will facilitate diagnosis, functional studies, drug development and personalized medicine. Thus, this book will further highlight the microbiome in the context of health and disease, focusing on mechanistic concepts that underlie the complex relationships between host and microbes.

The Multiple Inert Gas Elimination Technique (MIGET)

The Multiple Inert Gas Elimination Technique (MIGET) is a complex methodology involving specialized gas chromatography and sophisticated mathematics developed in the early 1970’s. Essentially, nobody possesses knowledge of all its elements except for its original developers, and while some practical and theoretical aspects have been published over the years, none have included the level of detail that would be necessary for a potential user to adopt and understand the technique easily. This book is unique in providing a highly detailed, comprehensive technical description of the theory and practice underlying the MIGET to help potential users set up the method and solve problems they may encounter.

But it is much more than a reference manual – it is a substantial physiological and mathematical treatise in its own right.

It also has a wide applicability – there is extensive discussion of the common biological problem of quantitative inference. The authors took measured whole-lung gas exchange variables, and used mathematical procedures to infer the distribution of ventilation and blood flow from this data. In so doing, they developed novel approaches to answer the question: What are the limits to what can be concluded when inferring the inner workings from the “black box” behavior of a system? The book details the approaches developed, which can be generalized to other similar distributed functions within tissues and organs. They involve engineering approaches such as linear and quadratic programming, and uniquely use mathematical tools with biological constraints to obtain as much information as possible about a “black box” system.

Lastly, the book summarizes the hundreds of research papers published by a number of groups over the decades in a way never before attempted in order to marshal the world’s literature on the topic and to provide in one place the wealth of important discoveries, both physiological and clinical, enabled by the technique.

Breathing on the Roof of the World:
Memoir of a Respiratory Physiologist

This book is an informal autobiography by John West MD PhD. He obtained his medical degree in Adelaide, Australia and then spent 15 years mainly at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital in London where he, with others, used radioactive oxygen-15 to make the first description of the uneven regional distribution of blood flow in the lung.

In 1960-1961, he was a member of the Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary who had made the first ascent of Mt Everest 7 years before. During the expedition about 6 scientists spent up to three months at an altitude of 5800 m studying the effects of this very high altitude on human physiology.

Because of his interests in the effects of gravity on the lung, Dr. West spent a year at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California in 1967-1968. While there he submitted a proposal to NASA to measure pulmonary function of astronauts in space, and this was funded. Later, in 1981 he organized the American Medical Research Expedition to Everest during which the first measurements of human physiology on the summit, altitude 8848 m, were obtained. In the 1990’s, Dr. West’s team made the first comprehensive measurements of pulmonary function of astronauts in space using SpaceLab which was taken up in the Shuttle.

This book offers physiology teachers a new approach to teaching their subject that will lead to increased student understanding and retention of the most important ideas. By integrating the core concepts of physiology into individual courses and across the entire curriculum, it provides students with tools that will help them learn more easily and fully understand the physiology content they are asked to learn. The authors present examples of how the core concepts can be used to teach individual topics, design learning resources, assess student understanding, and structure a physiology curriculum.

The Physiology of Exercise in Spinal Cord Injury

Every year, around the world, between 250,000 and 500,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury (SCI). Those with an SCI are two to five times more likely to die prematurely than people without a spinal cord injury, with worse survival rates in low- and middle-income countries. Dynamic aerobic requires integrated physiologic responses across the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, autonomic, pulmonary, thermoregulatory, and immunologic systems. Moreover, regular aerobic exercise beneficially impacts these same systems, reducing the risk for a range of diseases and maladies. This book will present comprehensive information on the unique physiologic effects of SCI and the potential role of exercise in treating and mitigating these effects. In addition, it will incorporate work from scientists across a number of disciplines and have contributors at multiple levels of investigation and across physiologic systems. Furthermore, SCI can be considered an accelerated form of aging due to the severely restricted physical inactivity imposed, usually at an early age. Therefore, the information presented may have a broader importance to the physiology of aging as it relates to inactivity. Lastly, the need for certain levels of regular aerobic exercise to engender adaptations beneficial to health is not altered by the burden of an SCI. Indeed, the amounts of exercise necessary may be even greater than the able-bodied due to ‘passive’ ambulation. This book will also address the potential health benefits for those with an SCI that can be realized if a sufficient exercise stimulus is provided.

Parental Obesity:
Intergenerational Programming and Consequences

In this book, leading figures in the field of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease provide up-to-date information from human clinical trials, cohorts, and animal physiology experiments to reveal the interdependence between parental obesity and health of the offspring. Obesity of the mother and father produces obesity in their offspring, so we are caught up in an intergenerational cycle, which means that even our children’s future health is in peril. This book gives a timely and much-needed synthesis of the mechanisms, potential targets of future interventions, and the challenges that need to be overcome in order to break the intergenerational cycle of obesity. This has profound implications for the way in which scientific, clinical and health policy activities are to be directed in order to combat the so-called epidemic of obesity, as well as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. The book will be of interest to students, clinicians, researchers and health policy makers who are either seeking an introduction to the area of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease or have a specific interest in the pathogenesis of obesity.

Helps physiologists and biologists interested in mechanobiology but new to the field to understand the impact of mechanobiology on physiological regulation in health and disease

Details the roles of mechanobiology in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseaseCovers basic principles in physiological conditions, as well as examples of clinical applications

This book will cover the cutting-edge developments in molecular and cellular mechanobiology to date. Readers will have a clear understanding of mechanobiology at the molecular and cellular levels, encompassing the mechanosensors, transducers, and transcription. An integrative approach across different scales from molecular sensing to mechanotransduction and gene modulation for physiological regulation of cellular functions will be explored, as well as applications to pathophysiological states in disease. A comprehensive understanding of the roles of physicochemical microenvironment and intracellular responses in determining cellular function in health and disease will also be discussed.

Compares and integrates renal physiology across all the major classes of vertebrates

Identifies gaps in our knowledge of comparative renal physiology and indicates areas of future research

This second edition, published July 2016, offers a comprehensive overview of the physiological functions of vertebrate kidneys from a comparative viewpoint, with particular emphasis on nonmammalian vertebrates. The topics covered include renal structure; glomerular ultrafiltration; tubular transport of inorganic ions, organic substances, and fluid; and urine dilution and concentration. Mammalian renal function is only considered for purposes of comparison with nonmammalian renal function and as a frame of reference for some of the discussions. The major findings on nonmammalian renal function and the important unanswered questions raised by those findings are described in detail. As such, the book provides comprehensive information on comparative renal function for biological scientists and advanced students of biology with some knowledge of physiology and a desire to know more about renal function in vertebrates, and for mammalian renal physiologists who wish to obtain a broader view of renal function.

Updates readers on new findings concerning the essential role of biological rhythms

Addresses both basic research and clinical aspects

Written by leading scientists and clinicians

This book sheds new light on the molecular mechanisms that generate circadian rhythms. It examines how biological rhythms influence physiological processes such as sleep, hormone synthesis and secretion, immunity, kidney function, the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, and the digestive system. Clinical implications are considered while exploring the impact of rhythms on neuropsychiatric disorders and chronotherapy’s potential for reducing cardiovascular risk. Offering a cross-section of expertise in both basic and translational (bench-to-bedside) research, this book serves as a guide for physicians and scientists who wish to learn more about the impact of circadian rhythms on physiological processes in health and disease.

This book sheds new light on the physiology, molecular biology and pathophysiology of epithelial ion channels and transporters. It combines the basic cellular models and functions by means of a compelling clinical perspective, addressing aspects from the laboratory bench to the bedside. The individual chapters, written by leading scientists and clinicians, explore specific ion channels and transporters located in the epithelial tissues of the kidney, intestine, pancreas and respiratory tract, all of which play a crucial part in maintaining homeostasis. Further topics include the fundamentals of epithelial transport; mathematical modeling of ion transport; cell volume regulation; membrane protein folding and trafficking; transepithelial transport functions; and lastly, a discussion of transport proteins as potential pharmacological targets with a focus on the pharmacology of potassium channels.

Features current innovative topics in the field of sodium and water homeostasis

Features domestic and international contributions from experts in the field

Covers multiple organ systems and cellular processes

This book presents cutting edge methods that provide insights into the pathways by which salt and water traverse cell membranes and flow in an orchestrated fashion amongst the many compartments of the body. It focuses on a number of molecular, cellular and whole animal studies that involve multiple physiological systems and shows how the internal milieu is regulated by multifactorial gene regulation, molecular signaling, and cell and organ architecture.

Topics covered include: water channels, the urinary concentrating mechanism, angiotensin, the endothelin system, miRNAs and MicroRNA in osmoregulation, desertadapted mammals, the giraffe kidney, mosquito Malpighian tubules, and circadian rhythms. The book highlights how different approaches to explaining the same physiological processes greatly increase our understanding of these fundamental processes. Greater integration of comparative, evolutionary and genetic animal models in basic science and medical science will improve our overall grasp of the mechanisms of sodium and water balance.

An exciting document for former, current and future scientists and friends of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL)

Provides a scientific genealogy of the MDIBL

Combines research, administrative and social histories of the MDIBL

This volume offers a comprehensive history of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL), one of the major marine laboratories in the United States and a leader in using marine organisms to study fundamental physiological concepts. Beginning with its founding as the Harpswell Laboratory of Tufts University in 1898, David H. Evans follows its evolution from a teaching facility to a research center for distinguished renal and epithelial physiologists. He also describes how it became the site of major advances in cytokinesis, regeneration, cardiac and vascular physiology, hepatic physiology, endocrinology and toxicology, as well as studies of the comparative physiology of marine organisms. Fundamental physiological concepts in the context of the discoveries made at the MDIBL are explained and the social and administrative history of this renowned facility is described.

Mechanism of Muscular Contraction

Describes the evolution of muscular contraction concepts since the discovery of sliding filaments

Includes detailed scientific histories of principal investigators in the field

Features information on contraction coupling and the role of calcium in contraction and relaxation

Fundamental discoveries in the 1950s relating to the mechanism of muscle contraction fueled an explosion of knowledge in the latter half of the 20th century. This book traces in depth the evolution of ideas from the 1950s into the 21st century. In a scholarly yet highly readable monograph, the book describes the history on which our current understanding of muscle function is based. This is the most comprehensive study and first book-length treatment of the muscle field in over forty years.

In order to provide perspective into the thinking about an issue at the time of its discovery, often the investigators describe in their own words an important result or conclusion as it appeared in an original paper. Numerous figures from the original papers are included in order to allow the reader to see the data that led to important conclusions. More than a history of experimental facts, the book describes backgrounds of many of the key investigators to allow a deeper insight into their motivations and approach to science. Controversies in the muscle field are discussed along with some missed opportunities and false trails. An amazing variety of experimental techniques have been brought to bear on the investigation of the mechanism of muscular contraction. Background of these various techniques is presented in order to gain a fuller appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses. The book is organized into nine chapters with over 170 illustrations and 1,200 references. The book provides insight into scientific thought and forms a framework for future enquiry into muscle function.

The author, an emeritus professor in the department of physiology and cell biology at Ohio State University, has been a contributor to research in the muscle field for over forty years.

Essays on the History of Respiratory Physiology

The book is written for scientists but is accessible to interested non-scientists

Covers the history of significant people and events over the whole course of respiratory physiology

Discusses how historical events such as the Renaissance and Enlightenment shaped respiratory physiology

This book consists of 23 essays about prominent people and events in the history of respiratory physiology. It provides a first-hand chronicle of the advancements made in respiratory physiology starting with Galen and the beginnings of Western physiology. The volume covers many aspects of the evolution of this important area of knowledge: pulmonary circulation, Boyle’s Law, pulmonary capillaries and alveoli, morphology, gas exchange and blood flow, mechanics, control of ventilation, and comparative physiology. The book emphasizes societal and philosophical aspects of the history of science. Although it concentrates on physiology, it also describes how cultural movements, such as The Enlightenment, shaped the researchers discussed.

The Rise of Fetal and Neonatal Physiology: Basic Science to Clinical Care

Constitutes a definitive history of an important field of physiology, that which concerns the developing fetus and newborn infant

Addresses the contributions of basic scientists and physiologists to clinical problems of prematurity, such as the causes of premature labor, respiratory distress syndrome, retinopathy of prematurity, and thermoregulation

Includes contributions from over 40 leading scientists in this field

During the mid- to late-twentieth century, study of the physiology of the developing fetus and newborn infant evolved rapidly to become a major discipline in the biomedical sciences. Initially of interest from a standpoint of function of the placenta and oxygenation of the fetus, the field advanced to explore both normal functional mechanisms as well as pathophysiologic aspects of their regulation. Examples include studying the role and regulation of circulatory vascular anatomic shunts in oxygenation, cardiac function, certain aspects of asphyxia in the fetus and newborn infant, the role of fetal “breathing” movements, cyclic electroencephalographic activity, and analysis of electronic monitoring of fetal heart rate variability and its significance.

Included in this book are reminisces of several dozen individuals who played a vital role in these developments. Overall, this survey considers a number of aspects of the development of the science of fetal and neonatal physiology, and its role in the greatly improved care of pregnant women and their newborn infants.

Book Monograph Series

The American Physiological Society is devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences. The APS publishes three book series, now in partnership with Springer: Perspectives in Physiology (formerly People and Ideas), Methods in Physiology and Physiology in Health and Disease (formerly Clinical Physiology), as well as general titles. For further information about previously published and forthcoming titles, see below.

This series describes experimental techniques in cellular, molecular and general physiology. Each book is edited by experts in their field and covers theory and history behind the method, critical commentary, major applications with examples, limitations and extensions of each technique, and vital future directions.

Your bridge between basic science and clinical medicine. Each book brings together fresh ideas in the study of disease states and crucial physiological function. Each is meticulously edited by leaders in the field it covers.